


Step Three

by JohskatheWise



Category: A Crown of Candy (Dimension 20), A Crown of Candy - Fandom, Dimension 20 (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-07
Updated: 2020-08-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 06:27:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,268
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25758814
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JohskatheWise/pseuds/JohskatheWise
Summary: Liam and Ruby stay up one night on their way through Muffinfield and talk about all they’ve lost.
Relationships: Jet Rocks & Ruby Rocks, Liam Wilhelmina Jawbreaker & Ruby Rocks
Comments: 2
Kudos: 17





	Step Three

“I don’t know if it’s better or worse that Jet died before we found out about that fucking cake,” Ruby choked out from behind the hand she held against her mouth. 

She was in a bedroll as far away from the adults in the group as she could get without getting scolded, Liam diligently situated right next to her. As inseparable from her as her sister once was.

“If I hadn’t said anything,” he said slowly, softly, staring up at the night sky blankly, “if I hadn’t told Preston to go to Lapin…”

She exhaled sharply and turned her head to look at him. Her hand dropped to rest in the space between them.

“If I hadn’t convinced Jet to go to that stupid lingerie shop,” Ruby whispered.

Ser Theobald, who was on watch with some of Manta Ray Jack’s men, caught her attention as he shifted his weight suddenly and grunted. His new familiar, Princess, hung limply from his forearm by its fangs.

Ruby scoffed and looked away. Liam watched from the corner of his eye as her face contorted. Her eyebrows drew down, eyes going glassy and lip wobbling violently. Her chest heaved once before she took a deep, quiet breath in. Exhaling, her face settled into that unnerving placidity she’s had since Jet and Preston’s funeral. 

Liam started, “Sometimes,” and paused. 

This was something he needed to say carefully, and he was desperate to not screw it up. Ruby wasn’t in the right state of mind to see to the heart of what he was trying to say, but she needed to hear this. He couldn’t pull another Liam and have a repeat of his conversation with Sir Morris Brie. That would be disastrous. He needed to find the best words for this.

“If you’re going to say something, Liam, just say it.” Ruby glared at the stars above and set her jaw resolutely.

“Okay,” he whispered and nodded. He glanced around, checking to see if any of the adults noticed they were awake, and reached into the deepest and hungriest parts of himself before casting a spell to keep them hidden. “Okay. Just say it. Right, fuck it. I’ll just say it. Ruby, sometimes people do things that make them feel better and don’t really think about how that thing would make others feel.”

She said nothing.

“And it doesn’t mean that they don’t care. It just means that they need to care about themselves before they can care about other people. You can’t help someone if you can’t help yourself, and sometimes people don’t want your help so it doesn’t matter what y–is this making sense?”

Ruby sighed. 

Liam hurried to add,“What I’m trying to say is that we all miss Jet, Ruby. And no one misses her as much as you do, but that doesn’t mean we’re not all dealing with it. 

He cleared his throat and forcefully blinked away the tears that were gathering in his eyes. “I know you all don’t miss Preston as much as I do. He was my first friend, my  _ best _ friend, but he was just a pig to you guys. And that’s okay! I get it. I miss him. I’ll always miss him. I don’t think I’ll ever get over him. Not even when I  _ ice  _ that  _ fucking _ carrot.

“And Theo getting a new familiar isn’t him replacing Jet, it’s him remembering her. Because his job is to protect the royal family, and he failed. He’s alive, and Jet’s not, and he can’t handle that. He needs to remember Jet and what happened to her because if not… I mean, I–” Liam huffed and the night fell silent once again.

Finally, Ruby whimpered. “Jet was my first friend, too.”

The brave face she had desperately tried to build up crumbled with the admission, and she turned onto her side to face Liam. She stared at him with wide, wet eyes. Lost and devastated. The hand she rested between them was clenched in a fist so tight that her nails threatened to pierce her skin.

“She was my  _ best  _ friend. She was my  _ everything _ . I don’t know how to  _ be _ without her. We’ve always been JetandRuby Rocks. We’ve always been a ‘we’. How can I be an ‘I’? How can I be just me? Just Ruby? I don’t know what to do. My world feels colorless and empty and cold and I know it’s because she’s not here anymore. She’s not here, and that fucking bread killed her, and that  _ fucking _ cake is sitting on the throne that should have been Jet’s, and  _ I ran away! _ ”

Liam was glad he spelled them unnoticeable as Ruby nearly screamed the last words. Her chest was heaving violently now, sobs tearing out of her with each word and eyes overflowing with tears. He didn’t say it, but the wet drops sliding down her red skin reminded him of the blood that dripped down Jet’s body as she died. 

“I ran away, Liam.” Her voice cracked, eyes sliding shut as she slumped.

“You did what your older sister told you to do.” Liam reached between them and opened her hand. Sliding his fingers between hers, he squeezed it tightly. “I was with her when she died. Her last words, Ruby, were for you. ‘Tell Ruby she did the right thing.’ You did the right thing.”

She was shaking her head violently before he finished speaking. “I ran away. If I was with her, I could have  _ helped _ . Our lockets do one thing and that’s help each other when we’re down. If I hadn’t run, she’d still be alive.”

“Maybe.” Ruby made a wounded sound and tried to yank her hand away. He didn’t let go. “Or maybe not! We don’t know. There’s no way for us to go back and see what would have happened. We can just move forward.”

“I don’t want to move forward. I want to go back! I want to fix this! I want to have Jet, here,  _ alive.” _

“We can’t, Ruby.” Liam held her hand firmly.“We can’t go back, so we need to take this one step at a time. Okay?”

Ruby tugged on her hand again.

“Okay, Ruby?” Liam repeated kindly. 

She inhaled and nodded. “One step at a time.”

“Come on, say it with me. Step one: get to the Great Stone Candy Mountains. Step two: muster our forces. Step three...ahm.”

“We ice that fucking breadroll,” Ruby muttered darkly.

“Step three: Kill Ciabatta,” Liam agreed.

“And the carrot.”

“Step three, part b: Kill Keradin.”

“And the Pontifex. And Plumbeline.”

“Okay, step three: kill all our enemies.” That pulled a strained giggle from Ruby. Smiling, he added, “Step four: Slice that fucking cake.”

“That  _ fucking _ cake,” she grinned. “Smear his frosting on the castle walls and make it a national holiday.”

“Just slam cakes into each other’s faces every year.”

“Cakes, pies, all kinds of messy pastries. Straight to the face. Throw them at each other’s houses. Dump them on kids.”

“The coolest holiday ever,” Liam laughed.

“Like super cool. Like  _ so _ cool.” Ruby’s smile faded. “We’d have to hit every member of the Tart Guard with a cake. We’d have to hit Ser Theo with two. It’s what Jet would do.”

“We will. I promise, Ruby.”

* * *

In the dead of night in Muffinfield, Ruby Rocks and Liam Wilhemina laid under the stars on the edge of their fugitive camp, hands clasped tightly together and smiled. They felt hollow right now, but they wouldn’t always. Someday their worlds would stabilize, but until then they had each other. And step three.

**Author's Note:**

> I barely proofread this, but I just wanted Liam and Ruby to talk some more. And I may have missed it, but did Liam ever tell Ruby Jet's last words? God, I miss her.


End file.
